Sports

Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks share an incredibly rich surfing history. Virginia Beach is home to major surfing institutions so iconic and long lasting they are simply referred to as "ECSC,'? "WRV'? and "17th Street.'? Of course, the Outer Banks has the consistent waves. The barrels. The lighthouse. Its beaches have been the setting for iconic moments in the history of the Eastern Surfing Association. Local surfing historian Tony Lillis chronicles the rich history of surfing along Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks from the early twentieth century, when world travelers brought home tales of Hawaiian surfing, through the heyday of the 1960s and into the twenty-first century.

Paul Hatcher won 897 games as the head coach of the Robert E. Lee High School boys" basketball team in Staunton. Astoundingly, he won 85 in a row from 2003 to 2006. In a career spanning forty-three years, Hatcher won four state titles, was named coach of the year an amazing eleven times and is a member of five halls of fame. The beloved mentor also developed nationally recognized talent like Kevin Madden and Tyler Crawford. Author and journalist Patrick Hite presents the dramatic story of a legend in high school basketball history.

Around Richmond, it's simply known as "The Classic." From 1938 to 1979, Armstrong High and Maggie Walker High, the only two all-black high schools within the city limits, converged on the gridiron each Thanksgiving weekend as spirited rivals. Each year more and more people packed the old City Stadium, sometimes as many as thirty thousand, sometimes too many to count. They cheered as the players fought for field position, pride, and bragging rights, and when the game was over, they fought for equality in the face of segregation, prejudice, and Jim Crow justice. Enjoy a view from the press box as Richmond sports historian Michael Whitt offers a summary of every Armstrong-Maggie Walker Classic and the often volatile social and political context in which they were played. The two schools may have produced one of Virginia's greatest prep rivalries, but they also helped shape its greatest achievement in unity.

Virginia, mother of presidents, is also the mother of American horse racing. From the very beginning, Virginians have risked it all on the track as eagerly as on the battlefield. Follow the bloodlines of three foundation sires of the American Thoroughbred through generations of rollicking races and larger-than-life grandees wagering kingly stakes, sometimes on horses not yet born. How did the horse nicknamed Damn His Eyes get protection money from other horse owners? What did it mean to "tap the claret" to break a neck-and-neck tie? Why was Confederate cavalry so much better than Union--was it the riders, or was it the mounts? All these and many more stories of horsemanship on and off the track fill the pages of Virginia Horse Racing: Triumphs of the Turf.